Jump into the insane mind of Zapiro with Zafari

Zapiro is pretty famous in South Africa for his politically motivated comic strips that appear in the Mail & Guardian and which often upset the ruling party and their associated friends.

His latest comic is taking a swipe at the recent judicial appointments where is blatantly calls out the JSC for not appointing clever blacks and especially clever pale males. Rather appointing, as he puts it, mediocre but compliant applicants.

I respect Zapiro for his refusal to just accept the status quo and while I don’t always agree with his point of view it is a point of view that our country would be lesser for if we didn’t have it.

And now he’s entering the mobile gaming world with a new title called Zafari that is being crowdfunded via the startme.co.za platform.

Or should I say they are attempting to get funding via the platform because at the time of writing they have only managed to secure R345 of a required R250 000 and I think they will struggle to get any corporate investment due to the political nature of the title.

To be brutally honest the game doesn’t look great but then again neither do his cartoons. They are simplistic in design but laden with detail and information and hopefully if the game makes it out of development it will be similar.

The game is fully supported by Zapiro who had the following to say

Creating a game is an interesting method of getting people to play with my cartoons. It gives them an opportunity to create their own stories, and their own interpretation of South Africa

And the press release goes on to explain the game as follows

Africa”. Zafari is an episodic game similar to “Pocket Gods” for you to explore, show your friends and have fun with. It contains multiple locations with many hilarious scenarios, exciting mini-games and hidden secrets for you to uncover. The game is a-political and aims to encourage sensible political debate. In Zafari you are the the person in charge, the controller of the new Za. Those in the limelight in South Africa are subject to your whims. Your powers range from benevolent powers like saving their lives when they are in danger or naming streets after them, to malevolent powers like lashing them with hail and lightning. Or just for fun get them to throw objects at each other for bonuses and watch them have slap-fights.

So that’s it, are you politically motivated enough to part with some of your cash to support freedom of speech or are you more interested in helping a local games developer get a title out the front door?

If so then head on over to their startme page and pledge, for R1250 you can get a signed Zapiro book which could become a collectors edition if Malema ever finds out where Zapiro lives.

I'm cranky, arrogant and ever so amazingly annoying but when you get to know me you will also realise I'm honest and incredibly good at describing myself... now pass me that beer View all posts by Gavin →

I’m not going to lie. That doesn’t really look like a whole barrel of laughs to me. Plus – I’m not giving anyone developing a game my money anymore. You can’t trust anyone these days. Between EA, the guys behind The ScamZ, and disappointing games generally, I’ll wait for the review by Lazygamer. At least y’all have some sense and can be trusted for reliable info. Do research before spending money is the name of the gaming industry at the moment.

Sorry Zapiro. Blame EA for not getting my money. And that your intro/preview video doesn’t really show much fun to be had.

Admiral Chief Erwin

Lame.

But lulz at the “fight” between Juju and JZ!

http://www.lazygamer.co Gavin Mannion

gotta admit that was my favourite part as well

Admiral Chief Erwin

Sound effects were even more lulz in that fight

Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

pitterpatterpitterpatter

https://twitter.com/WayneBossenger Wayne Bossenger

ha, so its like tamagotchi’s but with the zaphiro twist, interesting… could be fun